Back in my college days, I had the pleasure of drinking large quantities of Shiner Bock before they were bought out by Gambrinus and turned into a mini-macro brewery. From week to week, the flavors would vary as they were a small batch brewer back then with a fervent and thirsty following. Sadly, while it’s still good, it’s not what it once was. Back in the day, if you went more than 150 miles in any direction from Austin, you couldn’t find it anymore; now it’s on the shelf at Fred Meyer up here in Portland.

The main difference (for me) with bock beer is that it’s brewed with lager yeast. Lager yeast needs a much lower temperature than ale yeast so I can only brew it in the wintertime. I leave the primary fermentation bucket out in the garage while the fermentation completes, which stays around 50 degrees in the winter and keeps the lager yeasties happy.

Color

Stats

OG

1.052

FG

1.013

IBU

36

ABV

5.0 %

SRM

23

Specifics

Boil Volume

6 gallons

Batch Size

5 gallons

Yeast

75% AA

Style Comparison

Low

High

OG

1.064

1.052

1.072

FG

1.013

1.013

1.020

IBU

20

36

35

SRM

14

23

30

ABV

6

5.0

7.5

Fermentables

% Weight

Weight (lbs)

Grain

Gravity Points

Color

77.8 %

7.00

Light Malt Extract Syrup

47.6

2.8

11.1 %

1.00

Munich Dark

2.0

3.6

5.6 %

0.50

Chocolate

1.0

35.0

5.6 %

0.50

American Crystal 120L

1.1

12.0

9.00

51.6

Hops

% Wt

Weight (oz)

Hop

Form

AA%

AAU

Boil Time

Utilization

IBU

33.3 %

2.00

Hallertau

Whole/Plug

3.1

6.2

45

0.225

20.9

33.3 %

2.00

Saaz

Whole/Plug

3.5

7.0

20

0.148

15.6

33.3 %

2.00

Tettnanger

Whole/Plug

4.5

9.0

0

0.000

0.0

6.00

36.4

Details: roast the two row grain in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Bring the grains to a boil in a gallon of water. Strain the wort into the brewpot and top off. Brew as normal.

Props, as always, to Tastybrew for their handy dandy recipe calculator. As you can see I’m below ABV for the style but I’m fine with that. 5% ABV gets the job done for me. I’m also a hair over the spec’d IBU but I just can’t give up my precious precious hops.